<\/a>Courtesy photo | Christian Del Rosario\n Beth Kerttula holds up a crab in a photo that was shared during her Jan. 25 lecture at Mendenhall Valley Glacier Visitor Center.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t
Issues listed included receding glaciers, warming ocean waters, ocean acidification, red tide, dying reefs, ocean plastic, illegal unreported unregulated fishing, oil spills and more.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“The new models are showing the oceans are warming 40 percent faster on average than a U.N. panel estimated five years ago,” Kerttula said. “These warming temperatures are wreaking havoc in the ocean.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Kerttula’s interest in ocean health pre-dates those alarming figures and goes back at least a decade.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“I was sitting in my cousin’s backyard on Sixth Street, and fumes coming up from the cruise ships were really heavy that day,” Kerttula said. “I just remember smelling it and seeing it and being really disturbed by it. When I got elected, one of the first pieces of legislation I filed was about cruise ship pollution.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Eventually, that became the first bill in the U.S. to cover cruise ship pollution.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“This is why I started to look at international ocean issues and look at how it not just impacts us but the world,” Kerttula said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
[As blue haze rises, so do cruise ship complaints<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t That interest ultimately led to her directing the National Oceans Council, which was created by the National Ocean Policy<\/a>. The policy also established nine ocean regions with planning bodies comprised of federal, state and tribal members. Under the Trump administration the NOP was remade with a focus on economic and security interests.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Still, Kerttula said some of the same work sharing information and collaborating to make better use of the oceans and Great Lakes continued.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Similarly, Kerttula touted the intent of the Coastal Zone Management Act, which allows states to have final say over what happens to their coastlines. However, a split state house vote meant as of July, 1, 2011, <\/a>Alaska has withdrawn from the Coastal Management Program.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Not all doom and gloom<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t While the bulk of Kerttula’s talk underscored the perilous state of the oceans, she did mention some bright spots.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Those included ongoing expansion of renewable energy as well as the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 14<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t